Don't Speak
by ivy-tsuta
Summary: She saw who she was and died for it. Character Death. Oneshot. Sakura.


_**Title: Don't Speak  
PenName: ivy-tsuta  
Rating: T  
Warnings: Character Death!!!**_

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_**Don't Speak**_

_ivy-tsuta_

Naruto had bet her; he bet her that she couldn't make it a week in his empty apartment.

So in a natural defiance, she obviously made the bet. He smiled at her and told her to come back the next day with enough clothes to last the entire week, toothbrush, and other things she might need.

She did. Naruto gave her instructions to water his plants every other day and to not leave unless for food. No socializing. Sakura nodded, pink hair swaying as she did so. She could do this, easy.

How wrong she was.

_Day One_

Naruto's apartment was small and bare, paint peeling around the moulding with cracks in the walls -nine in all if she cared enough to count- and clean to the point it could be considered a hospital. So different from the bright, messy, _unflawed _Naruto that she knew. It confused her to no end that he and his living space could contrast so greatly. But she was not one to question this highly unimportant fact.

So for the first day of her endeavor she got comfortable to the plain gray walls and cold wood floors. She put her green toothbrush in the holder where Naruto's had once been, making it seem as though it had been there for all her life. Hairbrush went on the bureau; clothes in it. Might as well make herself comfortable. Strawberry shampoo and matching conditioner in the shower with her favorite fluffy red towel ready for her first shower. She thought a lot about what to pack.

After she finished it was dark, about 10:45. She decided that everything was unpacked well enough, and set into the right place. She went to bed in Naruto's small, single bed that creaked slightly when pressed down upon.

_Day Two_

Sakura woke to blinding rays of sun shining through the perfectly aligned shades to do just so. The Hokage Mountain was in perfect view from here, she noted. The house -because she couldn't call it a home, not at all- was decidedly warmer in manner and feeling during the morning. She took a shower, pores open to allow in fresh air, brushed her teeth to have fresh breath, and dressed in something to lounge in, gray sweat pants and a faded red T-shirt. She brushed her short, still damp hair, frowning when it hung limply. She pulled it out of her face by pulling it into a ponytail, no matter how hard that feat was.

Breakfast was in order, so she went to the kitchen. The walls were the same bleak gray as the rest of the apartment, but the whole room seemed brighter from all the sunlight streaming through the open curtained window. She smiled at this. She was starting to think everything was gray here. The table was a light oak wood with two chairs, one noticeably more used than the other. The curtains were yellow checkered with white. Sakura had to notice that the gray, gray tile had a stain close to the sink. It could easily be mistook as rust, being so close to water and she wanted to believe it when her mind supplied this, but she knew that it wasn't rust to any degree.

Maybe it was a good thing the tiles weren't white. Her pretty face twisted into a grimace. She decided to ignore the reality in front of her and chose instead to think of what to make for breakfast; eggs of a certain type.

_Day Three_

She was bored by now. Sakura didn't thrive off of attention and socialization but she didn't like being stuck in one place for too long. Should of thought of that before you agreed to this. But she was determined not to lose the bet. She could make it through four more days of this. No problem.

As she had nothing else to do, she went shopping. She didn't need to and she wasn't allowed to speak to anyone, but she enjoyed watching other people go through their normal, everyday lives. Her green eyes glowed with mirth as she watched children play, kicking up dust angering old shop owners. She bought little.

That done, she went back to the apartment and made herself some stuffed octopus tentacles. She did the dishes while humming to herself. If she didn't it would seem too quiet in the emptiness of her living quarters for the week.

Instead of doing nothing after dinner, Sakura concluded to study. She brought along some Medic Scrolls with just this attentive in mind, just in case. She went over the basics, reciting the scroll without need to even see the first word and never faltering in her monologue. She next went over extracting poisons and making antidotes. After a few more hours of studying, she packed up and went to bed after another shower. Reading took quite a strain on her eyes and mind.

With this in mind, she slept.

_Day Four_

The fourth day it rained. It came unexpectedly, kind of like it would in Suna but without the normal warning signs; no gray skies, no distant rumble of thunder, and no flash of oncoming lightning. The power went out and she was afraid. She could break the ground with her fist, face dangerous enemies without so much as flinching, but Haruno Sakura _could not _stand rain. It wasn't the sound of it pounding down onto the earth in destructive waves, no she could never hate something so closely related to her in strength so the same. It was the way that it seemed so gentle, caressing its victims in a falsehood of safety. She had seen people lured out by the rain, mesmerized by its beauty and soft falls, only to be struck down the next moment. Sure it was her striking them down, and it was nothing but a Genjutsu but it saddened her none the less.

So she was afraid. She was afraid that someone could and would do that to her, that she was stuck in some unnoticable illusion and that she would be drawn outside just for someone to kill her seconds later.

She screamed and cried until her throat was hoarse and all she could do was mutter incoherent curses. She whimpered when it still poured to the ground, face stiff with dried tears. Her exotic hair sometimes stuck to her face and she pulled at it hard enough to rip out a few strands. When all else failed, which wasn't all that much to begin with, Sakura calmed herself by talking to herself, soothing words flowing from her mouth in a steady stream although her voice cracked at odd intervals from her screaming. She curled into herself, willing the rain away.

_Day Five_

Sakura must of fell asleep on the floor while reading. A few books and scrolls lay scattered around, some over turned and never put the way she would put them with gentle, loving hands. She didn't remember much of last night. But her throat hurt like Hell. She felt lonely with only her books to keep her company, but brushed it off as being without talking to a real person in, what was it now, five days.

She went to get a shower after she picked up all the items strewn across the floor. The warm water felt good against her aching body. What did she dream about last night? She got out and wrapped her second favorite towel, this time a forest green, around her body and dried off. She open the door so that the little gray bathroom seemed bigger, and to let out the hot moisture clinging to the room. It cleared rather quickly and by the time Sakura was done tidying herself and considered herself presentable it was as if no shower had taken place. She picked up her rumpled clothing off the floor and threw it to the bedroom right outside. She glimpsed herself in the mirror and went to investigate. Her pink hair clung to her face and she had light dark circles under her jade eyes, made darker by the natural paleness of her porcelain skin.

Odd. She had been getting the right amount of sleep. She fingered the dark circle before shrugging and summing up to not enough sun.

_Day Six_

The next day was the oddest. Sakura noticed that the gray of the apartment was really starting to bother her. It was so dull, so lifeless, so bland; none of which she considered herself. She stared at the walls of every room for about half an hour each, planning out what color would look the best with each room. Light canary yellow for the kitchen, Pale blue for the bedroom, Tan for the living room, and Jade green for the bathroom.

She went into the bathroom to find one of her lost shirts. Pack early so it would be easier tomorrow. She once again glanced in the mirror and noticed the irritating dark marks beneath her eyes. They had gotten worse over the course of the night. Her eyes had a glazed look to them, a lost look. But she didn't look like that, did she?

No, of course not. But since when had her hair gotten so long? She always made sure to keep it short as a reminder of what came with it. She touched her hair and she felt the soft tresses flow over her shoulders like it had when she was younger. When she looked down at her shoulder out of the reflection it wasn't covered in a river of pink. Bewilderment crossed her face as she looked back in the mirror to find it long.

The image in the reflection of herself smiled, while she herself frowned. She reached out a hand slowly to touch the cold surface of the reflection and shivered at the coolness to the touch. The image grinned wider, showing off pearly white teeth, neatly placed in straight lines. Surprise flitted her face and became glued when she could feel her double's cold hand against her own warm one.

_Why aren't you smiling?_

Sakura screamed.

_Day Seven_

The last day of her self imposed imprisonment, Naruto unlocked the door via his own house key. He stepped over the threshold and was immediately hit with the overwhelming scent of drying blood, and yet to rot flesh, and the underlying scent of _strawberries_. He rushed in and frantically searched his small apartment for his friend. He couldn't lose another.

Yet, it just so happened that he did. He found her slumped on the ground by his bathroom sink, beneath the mirror. He picked her up out of the slowly drying puddle, her clothes stained red down the front and her hair covered in the metallic liquid. She wasn't breathing. But she was smiling, though it was a facade. Her face had been carved into a smile, tear tracks breaking the blood of the near perfect cut. Her eyes were still that beautiful jade he knew but she was pale, paler so now that she was gone and the blood that should be filling her face was on the ground.

Sakura definitely won the bet, she had stayed in his apartment for a whole seven days without talking to anyone but herself.

And written on that _horrible _mirror were the words, '_I'm smiling now._'

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